By chance we were in the Rådhuspladsen when this procession was starting so we decided to follow along and got swept up in this old Nordic tradition.

In the old days, Christmas was the time when dark dangerous forces unleashed.The Wild Hunt was a riding procession of dead spirits and animal monsters that jogged through the landscape under the leadership of the god Odin, or the dangerous witch goddess Hulda. Throughout the ages, these figures such as Julebukken, Odens-jägaren, Perchta, Krampus, Frau Holle, etc. have been reinvented. These wild spirits were enacted in the form of masquerade processions, These dangerous but also renewing spirits brought Christmas itself, and they brought the light back into the darkest night, in that the processions have typically carried torches or Christmas lights around villages and on farms.